My Dear Nawab Saheb

Orient Longman, 1991.

The biography of a 19th century Indian statesman, Sir Salar Jung, who served three Nizams as their prime minister: Mahbub’s father, Mahbub, and his son Osman. This volume is concerned with Sir Salar Jung’s relations with the British at the height of their power. In that sense it is a look at British colonial policy from the point of view of the colonized. Some Hyderabadis regard it as a prejudiced book, for it gives only Salar Jung’s version. That was the point: what he saw and understood were what he was reacting to in his official actions.